IN­QUEST TOLD HOW MAN­AGER TRIED IN VAIN TO RE­VIVE HIM

AMAN found in a col­lapsed state in the toi­lets of a Caernar­fon fast food restau­rant had taken a cock­tail of il­le­gal drugs.

Con­clud­ing that Dy­lan Ni­cholas Hughes, of Wil­liam Street, Caernar­fon, had died as the re­sult of the abuse of drugs, the coro­ner said that the death high­lighted the dan­gers of tak­ing more than one type of drug.

North Wales se­nior coro­ner Dewi Pritchard Jones said: “The level of the heroin found was not par­tic­u­larly high but it was en­hanced by the ef­fects of the other drugs. The mes­sage that needs to get out is that drugs don’t mix.”

Paramedics were called to the KFC restau­rant in Pool Street at about 5pm on July 20 this year, the in­quest at Caernar­fon yes­ter­day heard.

Restau­rant duty man­ager Christo­pher Gar­rathy said he was ap­proached by a cus­tomer and told some­one was asleep in the gents toi­let.

Re­al­is­ing he was ill Mr Gar­rathy made a 999 call and car­ried out CPR treat­ment un­til the paramedics ar­rived.

Af­ter giv­ing him emer­gency treat­ment at the scene the am­bu­lance crew rushed him to Ys­byty Gwynedd, Ban­gor but Mr Hughes was later pro­nounced dead.

Mr Gar­rathy said he had not seen Mr Hughes in the restau­rant be­fore and did not know him. Pathol­o­gist Dr Mark Lord said he car­ried out a post-mortem ex­am­i­na­tion and tests dis­cov­ered a num­ber of drugs in his blood.

They in­cluded heroin, co­caine and anti-de­pres­sant drugs.

Closer ex­am­i­na­tion of his lungs found gas­tric con­tent and the pathol­o­gist con­cluded he had in­haled his own vomit and suf­fo­cated.

He gave the cause of death as as­phyxia caused by the as­pi­ra­tion of the gas­tric con­tent and heroin toxicity. No mem­bers of Mr Hughes’ fam­ily were present at the hear­ing.